The present invention relates to protective equipment, and more particularly to protective headgear.
A various assortment of protective headgear or helmets has been proposed in the past for protecting the wearer's head in the event of a collision. Such helmets have been widely utilized by participants in a number of sports, where the possibility of head injury is great, such as football, hockey and baseball, and for other purposes, such as crash helmets. At an earlier time, it was somewhat unclear how much protection the helmets actually afforded to the user, and, if the wearer suffered a head injury in spite of the helmet, it apparently was accepted that the shock to the head resulting from the impact may have been greater than could reasonably be protected by the headgear.
More recently, technology has been applied to determine exactly what happens to the wearer's head when the helmet is subject to impact. In particular, tests have been devised to measure the forces which are actually transmitted to the head responsive to a blow against the helmet. For example, drop tests are currently being used to determine these forces. An accelerometer may be placed in a metal head form, and the helmet to be analyzed is fitted and placed on the form. The helmet and form assembly are then raised to a height above a striking surface, after which the assembly is dropped against the surface, with information from the accelerometer being recorded during this time. Of course, the assembly may be adjusted to select the desired impact point on the helmet. The data from the input axis of the accelerometer may be translated to the vertical drop axis to determine the forces which are transmitted through the helmet to the form. In this manner, a given helmet may be analyzed to learn whether it will perform adequately under conditions of use.
It has been found that in many cases current helmets do not afford the amount of protection expected or desired. In particular, the front of the current helmets may be considered to be the weakest part of the helmet in that the front part transmits the most energy to the wearer's head.